There are few violent crimes more sickening and appalling than those committed against elderly people. Like small children, they are particularly vulnerable: often being too frail, too isolated, and too weak too fight back against the cowards who target them precisely because of those circumstances.
It is difficult to imagine the level of depravity it takes to murder a 72-year-old woman by severely beating her about the head and body. Most of us who have elderly parents or loved ones will find the violence visited by Richard Kearney on Mary Dillon very distressing to contemplate.
Kearney at first tried to steal Mrs Dillon’s car from her home in Beneavin Road, Finglas, and when he returned months later – with the intention of making off with her car radio – he found the widow, who lived alone, in her garage where the car was parked.
He beat her so severely that she died of blunt force trauma. She was found partially naked in the garage, having suffered extensive injuries to her torso and head, including fractures to the skull and left facial bones, according to deputy state pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy.
Kearney was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 – but was granted temporary release from prison in 2023 only to almost immediately embark on what was described as a “spate of offending”
Now aged 42, Kearney “forced his way into the home of an older woman and robbed and assaulted her, before attacking and falsely imprisoning two priests in Clondalkin”, RTE News reports.
Kearney tried to choke one of the priests (74), while the other priest (86) broke his hip during the attack and remains in rehabilitation, the court heard.
Kearney, of Kilcronan Court, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty to 10 counts comprising four counts of false imprisonment, three counts of assault causing harm, two counts of robbery and one threat to kill at various locations in Dublin on March 6th and March 15th, 2023.
He was sentenced this week to eight-years in prison, and the judge said that “for reasons known only to himself, he approached these people, entered their property, attacked them, terrified them and falsely imprisoned them”.
The judge noted that the victims targeted in this spree had commonalities with Mary Dillon – they were “quite elderly and not in a position to resist or defend themselves”. He added that they were “greatly affected by the attacks”.
Very little is reported about Kearney’s character or his state of mind except that, as is often the case, he had taken “numerous drugs”, a familiar factor in such cases, but not an excuse for such viciousness.
We do know however, that he is a disgusting coward, and that his time in prison did not alter his inclination to seek out helpless victims to beat and to terrify and even to murder.
In fact, a report before the court found that Kearney is at a high risk of re-offending.
This is almost incredible. Why was a murderer who had shown himself capable of unmitigated savagery towards an innocent, helpless, elderly woman given temporary release?
Why was he let loose to cause more trauma and pain and hurt on people who didn’t know him and had never done him any harm?
Temporary release is granted by the Minister for Justice, currently Helen McEntee, to prisoners who are released from custody for a specific time and reason based on their behaviour while in in custody.
However, in practice, this provision ends the custodial portion of your sentence unless you are recalled to prison for any reason, according to the Citizens Information Bureau.
Their guide confirms that the Minister will have considered several factors in releasing Kearney, including the nature and circumstances of the crime he committed and whether he posed a threat to anyone, if released.
Given that Kearney went straight back to assaulting and brutalising old people, clearly the Minister has some questions to answer. On what basis did she make her decision, and does this process itself need an immediate review?
In a rush to emphasise rehabilitation and appear to be progressive in sentencing, is the state allowing violent, dangerous criminals free to attack innocent people when they should be in jail?
The Irish Penal Reform Trust, for example, has persistently called for alternatives to imprisonment, increased use of suspended sentences, and increased remission, saying “remission should be increased to 50% for sentences under 5 years; and 33% for sentences over 5 years but with an enhanced 50% for those who demonstrate engagement with services as part of incentivised regimes”.
Its obviously not their intention, but the apparent lack of focus in their campaigns on the actual victims – the people who are robbed, or beaten, or traumatised, or subject to terror and violence – is rather grating.
It is an inescapable fact that if Kearney hadn’t been given temporary release, he wouldn’t have been able to beat and rob his victims. And given the remorseless push to grant remission of up to a third of sentences, even vile, violent criminals can be free from prison earlier than they should be.
If Kearney is now believed to be at “high risk of reoffending” why wasn’t that spotted when the Minister granted temporary release? What guarantee do we have that this won’t happen again?
Not much, it seems. According to this report:
Justice Minister Helen McEntee confirmed in July that prisons are choosing inmates who are fit to be candidates for the scheme in order to relieve the service of overcrowding and make way for more inmates.
“Where the number of prisoners exceeds the maximum capacity in any prison, the Irish Prison Service make every effort to address the issue through a combination of inter- prison transfers and carefully selecting candidates for Temporary Release,” she said.
It’s almost unbelievable, isn’t it? A failure to build more prisons causes overcrowding which is then dealt with by “carefully selecting candidates for Temporary Release”.
Except in the case of Richard Kearney, a vicious murderer, the Minister obviously wasn’t careful enough – and now innocent elderly people have paid the price. Everyone who is part of creating this fiasco has some hard questions to answer.